How to Integrate Salesforce with Social Media Channels

Originally published at?Twistellar.com

More than 60% of the world now uses social media and has active profiles on more than six social media platforms. Social networks have long ceased to be just a source of entertainment content.

65% of customer service teams use social media

Source:?Salesforce, state of Service report

Social media has also revolutionised the way companies and brands operate in the digital age. Almost any B2B or B2C business model is compatible with a certain social network as a separate communication channel for sales, customer support, and brand awareness.

Benefits of Connecting Salesforce With Socials

In today's hyper-connected world,?having a CRM system that only focuses on internal data is no longer enough.

To truly understand external interactions and engage with customers, businesses need to connect CRM with media platforms. So these are 5 essential benefits of Salesforce and social media channel integration:

• Gain a 360-degree view of your customers: Tracking customers' interactions with the brand can result not only in improving the marketing or sales strategies, but even the enhancement of the product itself.
• Improve customer engagement & experience: By connecting Salesforce with social media, businesses can respond to inquiries and feedback quickly and efficiently, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Enhance marketing efforts: Social media platforms are a valuable source of data for marketers. By connecting Salesforce with social media, businesses can use this data to create more targeted and effective marketing campaigns.
• Monitor brand reputation: Social media platforms are also a key source of customer feedback and sentiment. You can monitor their brand's reputation in real-time and respond to any negative feedback or complaints.
• Increase sales: Social media platforms can be a valuable source of leads and sales. With integration, it's possible to identify potential customers and engage with them in a more personalized way, increasing the likelihood of closing a sale.

The benefits of connecting Salesforce with social media channels seem to be exciting. However, it's extremely important to align the expectations of this integration before its actual implementation to make sure you receive exactly what you need. So let's see what solutions Salesforce can offer.

How to Post, Advertise, Monitor and Message From Salesforce

Before the overview of each function, you need to take into account that it's unlikely to transfer the whole management of your social platforms to Salesforce. The reality is that social media APIs provide limited access to data, which narrows down the possible integration outcomes to some features.

There's not a single integration that will replace your marketing specialists and will not require participation and control.

The Salesforce ecosystem just provides a set of functionality that allows you to maintain social media marketing processes; however, it rarely provides you with a full data connection.

So let's see what options you have in terms of integrating CRM directly, using SFMC tools, or using third-party apps.

Posting & Monitoring

If you plan to post from Salesforce to social media, there are two possible solutions:

1. Third-party apps (Sprout Social)

A year ago, Salesforce announced an end-of-life date for Marketing Cloud's Social Studio: November 18, 2024. Instead, Salesforce initiated a global partnership with?Sprout Social?as an alternative tool promoted by Salesforce itself.

Sprout integrates with Service Cloud, Tableau, Marketing Cloud, Slack, and Sales Cloud, so you can post with the help of the platform and connect social media interactions with customer data and insights from Salesforce products.

Pros:

With Sprout Social, you can publish and schedule posts for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Pinterest with advanced possibilities, including reaching "optimal send time", managing a content calendar to visualise and organise your scheduled posts, and using draft and approval workflows for team collaboration.

Social listening and monitoring features enable you to track brand mentions, relevant conversations, and keywords across social media platforms.

Sprout Social also offers a mobile app that allows you to manage and post to social media accounts on the go. Plus, you can utilise analytics and reporting features that allow you to track the performance of your social media posts (likes, comments, shares, click-through rates, etc.).

Note:?In addition to the possibility of becoming the primary social media marketing tool for Marketing Cloud, Sprout Social will also incorporate Marketing Cloud Intelligence, Salesforce's marketing analytics solution (previously known as Datorama), into its platform.

Cons:

Sprout Social is a paid platform, and the pricing may vary depending on the features and number of social media accounts you have. It may not be suitable for small businesses or those on a tight budget. Such companies may consider other solutions on which they can spend less.

2. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE, formerly Pardot)

The power of MCAE lies in its lead nurturing and scoring features, however, it also provides its own social media posting functionality. You can share updates in Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts and company pages. For that, you need to use?connectors?for?Twitter,?Facebook, and?LinkedIn.

Pros:

You can compose your message, add images or links, and select the social media accounts where you want to publish the post. It's possible to schedule the posts to be published at specific times. In this case, you are able to use MCAE not only for B2B, but also B2C.

Cons:

These features are basic, and have some limitations. For example, a social network sometimes rejects a repost made from MCAE because it looks like a duplicate. You also can't use spaces in file names.

Some customers choose to invest in Social Studio and integrate it with Account Engagement. However, this integration might not be the most efficient option since it requires going through two connectors, which can be compared to jumping through two hoops.

Advertising

Marketing Cloud Advertising (MCA)

Marketing Cloud Advertising (MCA), formerly Advertising Studio, is a suite of tools and capabilities within the Salesforce Marketing Cloud platform that enables you to coordinate campaigns with social, mobile, sales, and customer service efforts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, or Snapchat.

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Read the full article and check out all the available SMM functions in Salesforce at?Twistellar.com